There are so many factors involve in being a professional football player, and there’s a big emphasis on professional. It’s hard to take care of business on the field if you’re not handling your business off of it, a lesson many young players learn the hard way. Many adjust and adapt. Many others don’t, and their careers sputter out.
Ray-Ray McCloud is one of countless young men who had to learn on the fly how to be a professional, and like many, many before him, he didn’t do it alone. There’s a lot of peer-to-peer mentoring that goes on unmentioned, between both active and former players, who just want to see others succeed, even avoid the mistakes that they made.